Red Deer Pub Safety Trunking on BC796D

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dewytakm

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I am trying to program this system on my BC796D. On the trunking info page Red Deer Public Safety & Public Works Trunking System, Red Deer, Alberta - Scanner Frequencies it shows a custom frequency table. However, when I program the radio as Type 2 Custom, it asks for a base frequency and an Upper Frequency. This info is not in the custom frequency table. I set it to 869.0000 for lack of a better idea.

Can anyone clarify exactly how I should program this radio for that system?

Thanks.
 

mciupa

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If your programming requires the Upper Freq's, this is the info I gleaned from the Home Patrol:
Plan 1 Upper Freq=868.975
Plan 2 Upper Freq=868.350
Plan 3 Upper Freq=870.550
Plan 4 Upper Freq=869.025
Plan 5 Upper Freq=868.975

Enter those as well as all the other info in the custom tables and you should be good to go. :)
 

AHSEMS

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Radio qestion

I have a question I was wondering I live in Calgary and i have a analog scanner and i was enquiring about would my scanner be able to get the red deer fire control frqency from calgary? I
 

Jay911

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No, you won't be able to pick up Red Deer from Calgary. If I recall you have to be about 20km or less from the city before you will hear it.
 

AHSEMS

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Jay I was wondering what emergency services around calgary I can listen to possibly?.
 

Jay911

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I can't answer too much about this topic as my employer has issues with me getting involved in local scanning. But a trunking scanner will pick up Calgary EMS - you have to be within about 20km of the city to hear the system.

Inside the City of Calgary, you'll most likely be able to pick up stuff in Rockyview County and Foothills. Things further out than that, i.e. Mountain View County, Bighorn, Banff, Wheatland County, Kneehill County, etc., are probably out of range.
 

N2PYS

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The better the receiver the higher the antenna and the tuning of the antenna all play a part in what you can listen to and from where,broadband antenna's that cover from 25-1, 300 mghz will let you hear a whole bunch of thinks "ok" but say you have a special interest in 425-475 mghz what you would do is make an antenna and tune it especially for that frequency range and mount high on the roof and put an A/B switch in when a is pressed you have Wideband when you press B you have the antenna dedicated to the frequency that you really are super interested in and can listen just on that antenna alone.Now if height and a tuned antenna does not quite pull in that signal you want all is not lost you have another 2 options which is to build a beam antenna and aim it at where the signal you are looking for originates and 2. go to Gre america web site and buy for 69.95 a 20 DB gain switchable preamplifier to add to your scanner 20 DB gain is like adding a monster antenna (if you look at some of the biggest 6' and taller mobile antenna's most of them the highest gain they have is 6.5 DB) So 20 db from a 9 volt dc blacck box is pretty awesome.

Happy listening!!
 

kayn1n32008

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AHSEMS said:
And if I have a trunked scanner can I listen to calgary EMS?

Yes, but at Jay911 stated you will need to be with in about 20km of Calgary. I stated in a different thread what you should be able to hear in the Calgary region.

If you are in the market for a Trunk Tracking scanner spend the money for a digital one as AFRRCS (Alberta First Responders Radio Communications System) is going to be coming online in the next couple of years.
 

N2PYS

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yeah and tell you about antenna's towers beams gain and all that t stuff but the other Amatuer in this knows more than i do because i am down in Pa whereas he is in your area and is familiar with the stations you want to monitor.

Peace
 

AHSEMS

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Thank you for the help everyone. I had one more qestion i was wondering can a anolog scanner pick up the calgary fire department freqencies in the database possibly such as the fire dispatch?
 

kayn1n32008

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If it is capable of tracking a motorola type 2 smart zone system then yes.
 

AHSEMS

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Radio qestion

Would a trunking scanner be able to pick up calgary EMS and calgary fire department? Are more Alberta emergency services switching to digital?
 

Jay911

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Yes, a trunking scanner would be able to handle the Calgary system.

A number of emergency services are switching to new radio systems as their old ones are getting "tired" and out of date. Some of them are going to new systems that are incompatible with scanners or most radios (example Strathmore and Airdrie FDs are on MotoTRBO digital which can't be scanned). Others are waiting for the provincial radio system to come alive in the next couple of years.
 

N2PYS

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Jay

As Far as your earlier reply about your Employer getting itchy and scratchy about you being involved in the "scanner Scene" they employ you for X number of hours per day,but you are always a Federally Licensed Amateur Radio Operator and that trumps there desires unless the day you where Hired they had you sign a legal binding notarized in front of a judge NON Disclosure agreement regarding radio technology and computer technology in current and all future use Which would be a joke because everything that they have as far as radio and computer interfacing and mobile data terminals and all that stuff WE the Amateur community pioneered and perfected and gave to them,so they would be saying stop innovation, stop technology here and call it a day. Just my two cents worth

Peace
 

robertmac

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And to add more to AHSEMS post

Most if not all departments are switching to digital encryption. Digital radios will not decode encryption. That is all I am going to say about that as I have mouthed off numerous times about already.
 

VE6E0

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As Far as your earlier reply about your Employer getting itchy and scratchy about you being involved in the "scanner Scene" they employ you for X number of hours per day,but you are always a Federally Licensed Amateur Radio Operator and that trumps there desires unless the day you where Hired they had you sign a legal binding notarized in front of a judge NON Disclosure agreement regarding radio technology and computer technology in current and all future use Which would be a joke because everything that they have as far as radio and computer interfacing and mobile data terminals and all that stuff WE the Amateur community pioneered and perfected and gave to them,so they would be saying stop innovation, stop technology here and call it a day. Just my two cents worth

Peace

A NDC doesn't need to be signed in front of a judge, and can include activities outside of your employment. The trouble which anyone who is employed by a PSA, is what information can they disclosed without breaching confidentiality? No doubt Jay knows more than most on the Calgary system, yet I can not recall him posting anything about this system. On other systems, he probably roots out the information by his own hard labour, but there will always be the suspicion, information may of come through his employment. It is a hard line to toe, hence the reason many people employed in the business would not post.

As for hams being the ones to perfect technology and hand it to 'them', hasn't been the case in the last forty years, if not longer. VHF repeaters came out of the commercial service in the 60s, packet evolved out of x.25 protocol. How many digital systems are there out there, how many are surplused commercial kit?

Cheers
 

Heterodyne

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As for hams being the ones to perfect technology and hand it to 'them', hasn't been the case in the last forty years, if not longer. VHF repeaters came out of the commercial service in the 60s, packet evolved out of x.25 protocol. How many digital systems are there out there, how many are surplused commercial kit?

+1 to that comment.

Ham radio, especially these days, is about as cutting edge as the thick edge of a doorstop.

Amateur radio, thanks to the crusty dinosaurs that currently inhabit the hobby, was left in the dust technology-wise decades ago. Hams would rather hold onto archaic modes such as packet and CW than embrace digital.... they're too busy crying about the good ol' days than looking forward.

N2PYS said:
As Far as your earlier reply about your Employer getting itchy and scratchy about you being involved in the "scanner Scene" they employ you for X number of hours per day,but you are always a Federally Licensed Amateur Radio Operator and that trumps there desires unless the day you where Hired they had you sign a legal binding notarized in front of a judge NON Disclosure agreement regarding radio technology and computer technology in current and all future use Which would be a joke because everything that they have as far as radio and computer interfacing and mobile data terminals and all that stuff WE the Amateur community pioneered and perfected and gave to them,so they would be saying stop innovation, stop technology here and call it a day. Just my two cents worth

That's quite possibly the most ridiculous argument I've ever heard.

It's the same sort of thinking that leads people to believe that paying income tax is unconstitutional, a judge has no authority in a courtroom displaying a gold fringed flag, Obama's a muslim, etc.

Jay has *every* right to protect his job over revealing information about the PS agency that he works for. Waving his ham ticket in front of his bosses after finding himself at a termination meeting would probably get him shown the door faster, and wouldn't hold up in *any* board of labour tribunal.

Jay's employer doesn't want him to get involved in talking about the system that employs him, and he's taken the very responsible position of abiding by their wishes. Bravo to him -- it's a sense of responsibility that's sadly lacking in the scanning hobby.
 

robertmac

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Boy look out hams

Must have a bur under the saddle. But how much of the leading technology today has come from hams working professionally in the area of new technology? Doesn't have to originate in the ham services, but by hams working in the field.
 
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